Serve Robotics wants to democratize sidewalk delivery robots

A portal opens fleet access

Serve Robotics is introducing an AV Delivery Developer Portal for third-party software engineers, independent businesses and autonomous AI agents. The tools let them dispatch robots from the company’s 2,000-robot fleet directly.

People in the 150 neighborhoods where Serve operates can use the robots for deliveries without going through major food delivery companies such as Uber Eats. Serve was spun out of Postmates in 2021 and has used its robots for Uber Eats deliveries in Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas and other cities.

Seeking more than meal orders

CEO Ali Kashani told The Verge that opening the platform could reduce Serve’s reliance on large delivery apps and keep robots working between lunch and dinner rushes. He said demand for food delivery tends to cluster around those meal periods, making other uses a source of diversification.

Serve’s robots will handle API requests on the same basis as enterprise orders, Kashani said. He described the fleet as an open marketplace, with no preferential treatment for one kind of request over another before a robot takes a delivery.

Businesses could arrange deliveries

Kashani said merchants could pay per delivery or reserve a robot by the hour, at a fraction of the cost of human-powered delivery services. Possible uses include deliveries for small businesses, office-to-office shuttles, repair shops moving parts, and peer-to-peer exchanges such as Facebook Marketplace.

Developers provide pickup and drop-off coordinates. Serve’s systems manage routing, obstacle avoidance and remote teleoperation supervision, allowing businesses to move items without sending staff across town. Local shops could also add robot delivery to their websites and checkout registers.

Costs, safety and scale

Kashani has argued that opening fleet access could lower last-mile delivery costs. Serve’s fleet economics also depend on keeping robots in use: the company sees demand beyond busy restaurant hours and new types of deliveries as ways to increase utilization and scale.